Federal Court Strikes Down NC Congressional Districts

Alma Adams (NC-12) is a first term Congresswoman. The districts she and G.K. Butterfield (NC-1) were ruled gerrymandered by a federal court on Friday and ordered redrawn within a week. State lawmakers who drew the maps will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Credit U.S. Representative Alma Adams

Federal judges have struck down the maps of two congressional districts in North Carolina.

A three judge panel from the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia has ruled that the 1st and 12th U.S. House Districts in North Carolina are gerrymandered and must be redrawn. Both seats are held by African-American Democrats. - G.K. Butterfield in the 1st and Alma Adams in the 12th.

Two of the Republican state lawmakers who helped to draw the maps, released a joint statement. State Senator Bob Rucho (R-Mecklenburg) and Representative David Lewis (R-Harnett), Chairmen of the House and Senate Redistricting Committees, released the following:

“We are surprised and disappointed by the trial court's eleventh hour decision that throws an election already underway into turmoil. Should this decision be allowed to stand, North Carolina voters will no longer know how or when they will get to cast their primary ballots in the presidential, gubernatorial, congressional and legislative elections. And thousands of absentee voters may have already cast ballots that could be tossed out. This decision could do far more to disenfranchise North Carolina voters than anything alleged in this case. We are confident our state Supreme Court made the right decision when it upheld the maps drawn by the General Assembly and approved by the Obama Justice Department, and we will move swiftly to appeal this decision.”

North Carolina's 12th Congressional borders six other House boundaries. Each of those six (the 2nd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 10th) is currently represented by a Republican in the U.S. House. If the maps are redrawn that means there would be more Democratic voters drawn into some - or all - of those districts.

The 1st Congressional includes parts of Durham, and stretches to the Albemarle Sound. It borders the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 13th Districts. Of the U.S. House members from those bordering seats, only David Price (NC-4) is a Democrat.

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The primary is now two weeks away. In the 12th Congressional District, half a dozen democratic candidates are campaigning to replace Mel Watt. He was appointed head of the Federal Housing authority in January, leaving an open seat in the U.S. House.